Alright since the section was empty I thought I'd break the ice by introducing (or reintroducing maybe beating a dead horse) a thread dedicated to Elite's favorite bugs the Thargoids. I'm going to start by adding a few things that we do know about Thargoids and their culture and how they progressed in the Elite universe. Hopefully this will be a great springboard for discussion and speculation on the species since there is increasing evidence that they may be already a part of the Elite Dangerous universe. I do not make this claim lightly I'll put reasons below.

* Thargoids are a highly intelligent humanoid species derived from the evolution of insects rather than mammals and/or primates. (common knowledge)* Because of this evolution they retain many of the physical and behavioral characteristics of insects. (Elite: The Dark wheel)* They live in ammonia worlds (Frontier First Encounters)* Their young are created by some sort of "queen" and are either developed in their hive OR they may take on a host body until they are developed (Elite: the Dark Wheel)* Most Thargoid drones are female (Michael Brookes)* Though peaceful in nature most drones possess inhuman bravery and fierce fighting skills when it comes to defense of the hive because effectively they are lobotomized and all fear inducing parts of the brain are removed (Elite: The Dark Wheel)* Their basic cell markup is very similar to what we would consider advanced polymers (plastics derived from synthetic hydrocarbons), as a result they are able to "manufacture" living organisms that double as actual machines or devices. It has been understood by science that their ships are partially (to potentially) fully constructed using biological tissue (Frontier First Encounters)* The Mycoid virus was a human engineered biogenic weapon that was used successfully against them to infect and disrupt the living systems (and the occupants) of their ships and bases before the events of Frontier Elite 2. This effectively turned the tide the war against the Thargoids overnight and drove them away in almost complete disarray. (Frontier First Encounters)* Following the events of Frontier First Encounters Human-Thargoid relations progressed to the point that there were a series of scientific exchanges between the two races. These exchanges further reinforced a lot of the previously mentioned facts but also revealed that Thargoid have an interest in ice worlds (like Merlin) despite the fact they live in ammonia worlds. (Frontier First Encounters)* Observations from victims of Thargoid interedictions and spacer tales seem to indicate that they are much more comfortable with extradimensional environments as unlike humans they seem to not suffer from any ill effects of witchspace exposure (Elite)

* Science has determined to be far more advanced than human technology. Often advances in human technology came from the analysis of captured Thargoid equipment like ECM Technology (Elite, Frontier First Encounters)* Ships are partially to potentially completely constructed from living tissue and biological matter (Frontier First Encounters)* Thargoid hyperspace range is exponentially longer than human equivalents (Elite - Frontier First Encounters)

Well Michael Brookes has stated they "are coming" so it's safe to assume that we'll meet them at some point, whether they are currently active in the game remains to be seen.

How we interact with them depends on how closely ED lore follows the previous games.

We know first contact was around 3050, with the main invasion around 3055 and that war continues for another 140 or so years until the Thargoid invasion is halted by INRA's introduction of a Mycoid virus into the Thargoids' living machinery, at which point the Thargoids seem to disappear.

Apart from rumors, the Thargoids don't turn up again until 3252(ish) when the Allaince help them counteract the Mycoid virus and gain both a Thargoid warship and begin technological and cultural exchanges for their efforts.

So assuming ED follows this lore, then we have the unanswered question of what happened in the last 50 years to make the Thargoids disappear. The alternative being that their relationship with the Alliance remains...

Putting on a 'tin foil hat' - INRA was (is?) a Empire/Fed organisation, so when the Thargoids do return they may have a grudge to settle with both factions, at which point the Alliance may come into action as a more significant organisation.

Scooping fuel is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. First check the target is hot enough,then approach slowly. Once close enough, pull out your scoop and fill her up. After you're done justgently pull away, turn around and leave.

That's exactly what I was thinking and I'm sure (I hope) that they will continue on the FFE timeline, however, I'm beginning to think that the Thargoid presence has somewhat disappeared over the last 50ish years because of external reasons. They may have been driven off to remote areas of space by yet another potential entity. I say entity because at this point the only thing I can come up with is... Rogue AI (an idea that was mentioned in the past), another advanced civilization, or more simply fractionation of Thargoid's society. Maybe a large faction of queen/drones was not happy at how the war with humans went and began attacking those who were in favor of peaceful coexistence. In nature insects often are seen "going to war" with another hive or colony for supremacy. Maybe they are or have been going through some serious internal struggles. Not sure but short of a different reboot (that would be a shame) the story would definitely call for an external factor to make the lore work.

Also on the subject of Thargoid exchange tech, I wouldn't discount that completely as being out of the game. Thinking a bit outside of the box here I remember reading that the explanation for going from the old Newtonian to the Elite Dangerous flight model and hyperspace/supercruise mechanics is advancements in technology of ship systems and designs. Who is not to say that the science exchange with the Thargoids netted precisely that? That seems to make a lot of sense to me because of how advanced their hyperspace and ship flight dynamics were. In a way Elite seems to have gone full circle by starting with the Jump and Hyperspace model to Newtoninan Flight back to the Hyperspace / Supercruise way and that seems to go with the lore. Elite's drives were unreliable and often misjumped something the Thargoids knew and took advantage of during the war. Then there was the switch to safer more reliable (but slower) Newtonian flight, and now that we had help to fix the original drive systems we're back to zipping around the stars.

That's what I read too but we had that for the last games already. I'm very interested in what we will see being produced by the science exchange. I think better ship drives already is one. Who knows what next.

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